This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

The threat Donald Trump poses to President Obama’s legacy was well established from his earliest days on the campaign trail, when the businessman promised that he would abolish several of Obama’s core policies.

But the president is not the only Obama whose achievements President-elect Trump could roll back. The incoming president also could undo the substantial public health and nutrition changes accomplished with the urging of Michelle Obama.

The first lady has spent the past eight years championing anti-obesity initiatives, pushing an aggressive policy and public-outreach agenda that has played a part in changing how millions of Americans, particularly schoolchildren, eat. In a 2010 speech announcing her signature program, Let’s Move!, Obama described her goal as nothing less than “solving the problem of childhood obesity in a generation.”

Experts say her policies have contributed to several positive trends, including the overall obesity rate among young people levelling off in recent years. Children’s diets also have improved measurably, a recent Brown University study found, particularly when it comes to eating more whole grains, seafood, dairy and fruit.

But now that Trump will soon take power — Trump of the deep-fried taco bowl and 20-ounce Porterhouse fame — lobbyists, activists and outgoing administration officials fear that the president-elect, and his and his advisers’ skepticism of government regulation, will uproot the healthy food movement Obama has championed.

Article Continued Below

At stake is not only her personal legacy, experts say, but efforts to reverse the nation’s obesity epidemic.

“The Obama administration made a valiant effort to make progress,” said Marion Nestle, a prominent food policy activist and academic. “But there isn’t anything (Trump) couldn’t undo, if he wanted.”

Advocates fear that three achievements could be on the chopping block: rules that require chain restaurants to put calorie counts on menus, stricter nutrition standards for school lunches and an update to the nutrition labels that appear on packaged foods.

All three were championed by the first lady and enacted by Democratic majorities in Congress. School lunch reforms also had early bipartisan support, passing unanimously in the Senate.

In the years since, however, both congressional Republicans and industry groups have come to see the regulations as overly strict or wasteful. When Republicans won control of the House in 2010, and the Senate four years later, opposition to the first lady’s nutrition agenda became more vocal.

The most visible piece of Obama’s agenda is school lunch reform, which affects the meals of 31 million children. The First Lady began lobbying for better school nutrition standards shortly after her husband took office, seizing on the fact that the law governing the national school lunch program came up for renewal in 2010. With her urging, the new law—dubbed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act—required that the lunch program revise its nutritional guidelines for the first time in 15 years.

As a result, schools across the U.S. now offer students milk, whole grain-rich foods, and a variety of fruits and vegetables, plus limit the amounts of calories, trans-fats and salt that kids get in cafeterias.

“When we talk about raising a healthier generation, this is what we mean,” Obama said last May. “And it’s happening before our very eyes ... They’re developing a set of habits and preferences that will set them on a healthy path for the rest of their lives.”

While the measure was popular when it passed, sentiment shifted as the Department of Agriculture began to release concrete requirements. The School Nutrition Association, a powerful industry group which had been an important supporter of the legislation, reversed course over concerns that the new standards were expensive and unpopular with students.

“It’s not up to the government to dictate the personal dietary choices of individuals,” said Daren Bakst, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “We want these decisions made at the local level. That’s the pro-parent position.”

In Congress, detractors like Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., have introduced legislation and taken other steps to undermine or delay some of the law’s main provisions, including limits on refined grains and sodium. When the child nutrition bill came up for reauthorization in 2015, House Republicans attempted to gut both the nutritional standards and a measure intended to increase program access in low-income schools.

Negotiations fell through earlier this month, which means the issue will be taken up by the next Congress. The new nutritional standards will remain in place until then. While it’s too early to guess at what the next child nutrition bill could look like, Aderholt, one of the staunchest critics of school lunch reform, has said he expects changes. His office declined to specify what those changes would be.

Much of this uncertainty springs from the fact that Trump has never publicly spoken on school lunches or nutrition policy, though plenty of lobbyists and administration officials are scrutinizing the tea leaves behind closed doors. They note that Trump’s agricultural advisory committee includes Aderholt and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who reintroduced deep-fryers to that state’s schools.

The man leading his Department of Agriculture transition team, Joel Leftwich, is a former lobbyist for PepsiCo. Trump just nominated the CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. to head the Department of Labor.

Trump has said he personally eats fast food several times a week and has extolled the virtues of McDonald’s—though his 2004 book “Think Like a Billionaire” also preached the value of a balanced, minimally processed diet. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com